Songhaï

It is difficult to convey the sense of excitement and uplift we felt
at Songhaï. To get the full effect you have to be there, with the
irrepressible Fr Nzamujo to explain what's going on. Nonetheless,
here's an attempt to describe the project.

Background

By way of background, Benin is a desperately poor country. Annual GDP
per capita is around $1200. Official figures put some 30 percent of
the population below the poverty line, but this figure must be based
on a restrictive definition of poverty. Life expectancy is 54 years;
infant mortality (to age 5) is 167 per 1000; literacy rates are 49
percent for men and 29 percent for women; 44 percent of the population
are without access to safe water.

Another part of the background is widespread corruption. We heard
that if the government could collect 70 percent of the customs duties
they are due, in the port of Cotonou, this alone would solve the
problem of government finances; at present they collect more like 20
percent, while customs officials enrich themselves at the expense of
the state. We also heard of large-scale barefaced theft of state
property by local capitalists.

Fr Nzamujo Godfrey,Songhaï
founder and director

A third factor to bear in mind is the utter failure of grandiose
"development projects" planned by outside consultants and financed by
institutions such as the World Bank. Part of Songhaï Savalou occupies
the site of one such project, a $12-million deal whose legacy today is
a heap of rusting farm machinery (which Songhaï will melt down for
scrap) and some concrete farm buildings described by Fr Nzamujo as
"death traps" (and due for demolition).

Aims and practices of Songhaï

Against this background, the aim of Songhaï (founded in 1985, and
named after the great medieval West African kingdom) is to foster a
mode of development based on a thoroughly scientific approach to
agriculture and small-scale industry, combined with honesty,
integrity, and a highly developed sense of community. Songhaï aims to
"put Africa on its own feet", making the best use of local resources
and contributing to the world an economic practice grounded in
advanced ecological principles. The three Songhaï sites in Benin are
"model farms", showing what can be done with the application of
intelligence and public spirit. They are also centres of outreach to
the villages, offering relevant technical education and links to the
"outside world" via digital radio and computer systems.

Fr Nzamujo's motto is "The only way to fight poverty is by helping the
poor become productive". The Songhaï website states,

"Our objective at Songhaï is to promote agricultural entrepreneurship
among the young Africans while developing and transmitting appropriate
human values for a change of behavior so that they become actors of
their own development, capable of initiative and creativity. The
Songhaï philosophy is replicable all over the world."

Songhaï, and Fr Nzamujo personally, command a remarkable degree of
respect in Benin. Almost all the officials we met held up Songhaï as
a paradigm of what could be achieved and a sign of hope. Harry
Lightfoot of USAID, who formerly headed the agency's West African
operations, told us that he took a posting to Benin specifically so
that he could work with Songhaï, and indeed we saw plaques
acknowledging USAID assistance at the Songhaï telecentres.

Fr Nzamujo makes it clear to Songhaï employees that giving or
taking bribes is a firing offence. This rectitude has sometimes
landed Songhaï people in trouble with low-level officialdom. Fr
Nzamujo mentioned one recent case where he had to rescue an employee
from jail. He was able to do so because he has the respect of
government Ministers (the top officials we met struck us as honorable
people and Fr Nzamujo is able to exert considerable moral pressure).
His access to government dates back to 1985, when General Kerekou's
Marxist regime granted him land at Porto Novo to start Songhaï.

At present Songhaï is centered in Benin, but a large expansion is
planned for neighboring Nigeria. Ultimately, Songhai's ambition to
transform the poor into productive, educated and community-minded
citizens is continental, if not global, in scope.

Wake Forest and Songhaï

From the start of Wake Forest's summer program in Benin, in 1998,
relations with Songhaï have been close. This summer the Wake students
began their time in Benin with a week at the Porto Novo site, Fr
Nzamujo helped arrange our meetings with government officials, and it
was Songhaï drivers who took us around the country.

The question that naturally arises is, What can Wake Forest do to help
Songhaï? In past years some students have stayed on in Benin to work
at Songhaï after the end of the study program (for instance, last year
a Wake student translated the Songhaï web materials into English). We
could do more of this, and involve faculty and staff as well as
students. Some practical possibilities are:

Songhaï has a need for computer equipment, and scientific
laboratory apparatus (they are starting a microbiology lab at
Porto Novo). They don't necessarily need "the latest thing",
and in fact they are set up to refurbish old equipment. We
could organize the collection of useful equipment.

They place a good deal of emphasis on information technology in
the contexts of technical education, the linkage of local
sites, and making the best use of available resources. I
suggested in my talk in Cotonou that several reasons favor the
use of free
software (e.g. the Linux
operating system and the GNU
programs)
in a country such as Benin -- low cost; the
flexibility and adaptability associated with open source
software; the fact that Linux will run well on "modest"
hardware; the adherence of free software programmers to
international standards for file formats, hence avoiding the
"upgrade or you won't be compatible" syndrome characteristic of
proprietary software. Fr Nzamujo is also enthusiastic about
this. There is an opportunity for interested
faculty, computer science students, and possibly also IS staff,
to help Songhaï develop open-source information systems.